BHHC is a National Award Winner
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center and our non-profit housing affiliates have more than 20 years of
experience developing and operating affordable housing. We are distinguished by our having been
honored twice with the Fannie Mae Foundation’s prestigious Maxwell Award of Excellence. Our first
Maxwell Award was in 1989 for Coleridge Park Homes, a tax credit senior housing development and the
first non-profit air rights development in the country. Bernal Gateway Apartments won the Maxwell
Award in 2002 for its unique integration of permanently affordable apartments for families with low
to extremely low incomes, on-site supportive services for residents, employment training and a child
development center available to the public coupled with its innovative design created through an
involved process of community participation. In 2006, we were awarded first place in the MetLife
Foundation Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing in the supportive housing category, also for
Bernal Gateway.
Newest Collaborative Developments
BHNC has been committed for years to overcoming the geographic and economic isolation of Alemany and
Holly Courts, two public housing sites in Bernal. Working closely with public housing residents and
adjacent neighbors, we have homed in on common interests and goals and created effective
relationships that bridge the divide. BHNC participated throughout 2013 in the citywide
Re-envisioning the Housing Authority planning discussions. In 2014, BHNC, with BRIDGE Housing, was
selected as developer for rehabilitation, recapitalization, and conversion of these two properties,
with 118 and 157 family units, respectively. These developments were transitioned through the Rental
Assistance Demonstration project of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to a
disposition/public land trust model, continuing the current deep income targeting and affordability,
but using tax credits and other sources of financing to ensure long-term financial stability for
these properties as homes for some of San Francisco’s poorest residents. The Holly Courts
development was completed in 2018. Alemany will be completed in Fall of 2019.
BHHC and partner Mercy Housing has developed 1100 Ocean Avenue Apartments, a 71-unit building of
affordable family housing with designated supportive units for Transition Age Youth (18-24 years,
usually due to aging out of the foster care system) at the Phelan Loop, located at the southern
entrance to City College of San Francisco. Resident youth and families have access to appropriate
supportive services on-site. The building provides 71 new apartments and four retail spaces along
the Ocean Avenue commercial corridor and will feature sustainable green and sustainable materials
and systems throughout. Funding sources include San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing, San
Francisco Redevelopment Agency, Mental Health Services Act funding, Federal Home Loan Bank of San
Francisco Affordable Housing Program grant, the California Department of Housing and Community
Development’s Multifamily Housing Program, an Enterprise Green Communities grant, tax exempt bonds,
and Low Income Housing Tax Credits, with Bank of America as our construction lender and tax credit
investor.
